Bootup message "disk read error"

[Chins]

I have a Maxtor HDD which has recently given me "disk read error" whenever i boot up. It then tells me to press ctrl+alt+del but repeats the cycle. Recently i plugged in an old quantum HDD (running on win98) which had some problems as a slave with my Maxtor as the master. I got into WinXP and used the Admin tools to reformat the old quantum HDD. Now the quantum HDD is running but my Maxtor isnt! Before formating the Quantum i had some issues figuring out which jumpers settings were master, slave and cs so i turned the power off quite a few times w/out shutting down properly. i only did this when the Quantum was in master setting tho.
I tried setting up the Maxtor as a slave on another computer but i still get "disk read error".
Whats happened to my Maxtor HD? Is it a windows version problem cos of the 2 HDs having diffrent OS's? Is there a way to get all my data back from the Maxtor like a recovery program. I heard of one called GetDataBack but im not too confident it will help.
Does anybody have any suggestions for recovery programs or has anybody had this problem before?
Thanks

[pcschrottie]

Try chksdk c: in the recovery console (assuming that you use Windows XP an it's installed on the c: partition).

Michael

[Chins]

A frend of mine ran a dos program (probly chksdk i dont know) and fixed some indexes but still dusnt boot.
All the files were still there so we managed to save what we needed. Now we just finished a reformat and everythings working again
Thanks for the tip

[DREWFORT]

This is the same problem I'm having, only I don't want to reformat my hard drive. I can read the drive as a slave drive without any problems but it will not boot from that drive. The drive used to work fine as the master until I got the blue screen of death during a download from the Internet. Every since that it will not boot. It is very, very frustrating. NO ONE seem to know how to fix this problem, at least up til now. I have seen similar messages on many sites but no clear answer/solution to it. I would appreciate any help someone can give me...

[xcellpro6]

Hi Drewfort

Ok make sure that the drive withe the boot problem is the master. for this excersise remove your good drive or just uplug the power to it.

Insert your XP disk and boot from the disk
Select recovery console
follow the promts until you are in DOS
C:\windows
at the above prompts type FIXMBR

Why?
This will fix the Mater Boot Record for Windows it will ask you if you are sure and follow the prompts

once complete type CHKDSK /r
that is CHKDSK space /r
this will check the disk and repair any bad sectors

once complete type exit

system will reboot

Hope this helps

Darren
South Africa

[DREWFORT]

Thanks for the info, but my problem is deeper than that. Whenever I try to boot using the CD with the drive as the master (regardless if there's a slave drive in or not), I first get the message at the top of the screen saying it's going through the configuration (as it should) and then nothing. The screen is completely black and the keyboard is locked/dead. The only choice you have at that point is to reboot.
If I go through the same procedure (boot from the CD) with another hard drive as the master it boot from the CD with no problem. There is something occurring between the bios check and when Windows is started that's causing this problem.

[srsanford]

GetDataBack is a brilliant program

Download it, try it (works as long as the drive is recognised in BIOS), have duff drive jumpered as slave, run GDBFor NFTS

It willprove whether or not it can get your data back-THEN you can pay by credit card!!!

Try all other options first, but even after formatting a disk, GDB works brilliantly!!!

Steve S

[MidiMagic]

I'd say that something zxnrbled the boot sector on your master drive.

You need to change a BIOS setting:

Boot CD, then C drive.

Put the Windows install CD in and boot. It will then reinstall Windows and fix that.

Warning: If it can't fix the boot sector, it may reformat the entire hard disk.

[Kittamaru]

I'm having this same problem now with my fileserver... tried recovery console chkdsk /r /p but no love :(

I'm afraid to try the FIXMBR thing cause won't that destroy my current data?

Are there any good, free programs I can use to syphon the data off the hard drive and onto, say, a USB drive or something?

[srsanford]

fixmbr is very dangerous-and will lose data-UNLESS you are absolutely certain the hd was formatted/partitioned originally by Windows.
If Maxblast , the WD formatter by Daniel Nagy or similar was used originally, fixmbr will render your drive invisible to BIOS

OTHERWISE, fixmbr can be used as a very last resort.
Try Paragon Rescue Kit (freebie) first

Getdataback will usually recover data from a reformatted drive-if recognised in BIOS

[creatorbri]

Alright, I'm having similar problems I think, but its tough to pin down so I thought I'd get some input from you folks.

I bought a 500GB Maxtor hard drive about 6 months ago to use as a Backup/Data drive, which I installed in a USB/eSata drive enclosure, and purchased a cheap eSata ExpressCard/34 Adapter for my laptop. It has worked magnificently for this purpose. I'm quite positive I formatted the drive as a standard, single NTFS partition.

Now I've built myself a new desktop machine, using an nForce 680i SLI motherboard packaged by BFG (bought it Open-Box). I want to use the 500GB drive as the primary drive. Naturally, the drive has all my backup data on it as well, so I can't format the thing. So after hooking it up as an internal SATA drive, I simply attempted to install WinXP on the existing partition.

The XP installation proceeds fine through the first stage of the Install (this is the part where the display is in ANSI mode, where files are copied to the drive). Of course at the end of the first stage the machine reboots itself and attempts to boot off the drive.

That's when I get the "Disk Read Error" message. I've confirmed that all the proper XP (NT) boot files are present (i.e. NTLDR), and I've tried using FIXMBR from the recovery console. Interestingly FIXMBR warns me that it doesn't recognize the boot record or file system type or something (don't recall the exact message).

No matter what I always get a Disk Read Error, but only when I attempt to boot from the drive. I can read from the drive just fine. For instance I ended up installing XP on a junky 13GB drive, and with the SATA drive installed as a secondary it works fine (or at least, mostly fine.. there've been a couple un-reproducable errors that may or may not have been related to reading from the drive..).

BFG is sending me a replacement Mobo on RMA, but I'd rather not strip the whole thing out, especially if the problem is with the MBR or filesystem on my drive.

Any further thoughts about what might be causing this problem?

[chaiyaw]

Dear Darren,

I m teo from Singapore.

many thanks for the posting...but i could not even enter the Xp console. It says "inspecting the computer configuration..." and then the whole screen blank.

Please help! thanks!

Hi Drewfort

Ok make sure that the drive withe the boot problem is the master. for this excersise remove your good drive or just uplug the power to it.

Insert your XP disk and boot from the disk
Select recovery console
follow the promts until you are in DOS
C:\windows
at the above prompts type FIXMBR

Why?
This will fix the Mater Boot Record for Windows it will ask you if you are sure and follow the prompts

once complete type CHKDSK /r
that is CHKDSK space /r
this will check the disk and repair any bad sectors

once complete type exit

system will reboot

Hope this helps

Darren
South Africa

[harmorb]

I am having a "read dis error" problem on my Dell Lattitude C610 laptop. I have tried rearranging the boots on BIOS and rebotting but nothing happens. Please tell me what I need to do

[mars1004]

how do i reformat my pc.

[Piterski]

Hi!
Happend to me twice, none of the above and similar metods worked. The way to fix it was copy everything off the drive (use free Unstoppable Copier), format the drive, copy everything back. It is not nice and time consuming but works.
Good luck

Peter

[benmar]

if you have a friend has a ubuntu operating system put your maxtor HDD their so that so can put your HDD their as slave then you can recover your data...

[Reverend Jim]

Check out SpinRite at http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

They have an excellent video on what the software can do.

[benmar]

try to go recovery console in windows xp cd... put your windows xp cd in the cd room, select first boot from cd then after that press any key to continue, wait the process the after that press to go repair option, in the repair option type 1 after you read the question, then type cd, then type bootcfg /rebuild if nothing happens type cd.. then type chkdsk wait until the process finish, restart after the chkdsk...i try that steps when one of our computer here in the company unable to boot in windows...

hope it will works...

[benmar]

most of the disk read error is the HDD problem and the cable either IDE or sata cable check that also,...

[charlet]

my computer wont start up windows says pri masyer hard disk SMART. status bad backup and replace press f4 to continue when i do it says a bunch of other stuff like coos wich start up u would like safe mode safe mode with networking start normaly and when i try any of them it goes back to first screen i told u about can any one help what do i do